editorial by David Stevens, MD, MA (Ethics), CEO
It is a good thing that CMDA is not a medical missionary sending organization, because we are left in the ideal position to help missionary organizations motivate, recruit, train, equip, retain, encourage and sustain healthcare missionaries. Your CMDA is at the hub of what God is doing through the ministry of healing to build the church around the world! A few years ago, World Medical Mission started a post residency program to send new graduates interested in missions overseas for two years. During the interview process for the 20 new missionaries they sent out this year, they asked what motivated them to go into medical missions. Every candidate said it was their CMDA campus chapter and the annual Global Missions Health Conference (GMHC) that motivated and equipped them to go. The GMHC is the largest medical mission conference in the world and it all started around a dinner table in Zambia on a Global Health Outreach (GHO) team in the late 1990s. Southeast Christian Church sent their mission pastors and some healthcare members on that particular trip to learn how to run short-term medical teams. As they told me about their church and what they wanted to do to train their members for healthcare ministry, I suggested that they grasp a wider vision. There was no conference at that time to motivate, train and equip those interested in healthcare missions, and I believed I could get other Christian healthcare professional groups involved and make this conference their big mission event of the year. The rest is history. Today, more than 2,500 people attend this annual conference, and half of them are students and residents. Each year, there are more than 160 exhibitors and 105 workshops, and nearly 1,000 attendees commit their lives to mission service! Discussions are underway to reproduce the GMHC in other areas of the country. CMDA’s Center for Medical Missions (CMM) communicates with medical missionaries around the world to inspire, encourage and share information about service and resources through the e-Pistle. It also provides scholarships for students and residents to do rotations overseas during training. In addition, more than 1,300 students and residents planning to go into missions are mentored through CMM’s Your Call program to help them keep their minds focused on their call to serve as career missionaries. Since 1979, CMDA’s Continuing Medical & Dental Education Commission has provided a ten-day CME/CDE event in either Kenya or Thailand. At this conference, missionaries can get more than 65 hours of credit in four streams taught by 90 volunteer faculty members. Missionaries attending are strengthened by worship, Bible teaching, spousal programs, children’s programs and even a marriage enrichment weekend following the main conference. And it doesn’t stop there. CMDA motivates students, residents and graduates to get involved in their own communities as domestic missionaries. GHO takes around 45 teams overseas each year with the primary purpose of radically transforming participants’ lives and turning them into missionaries in their practices. Medical Education International leads teams into difficult-to-access countries like Mongolia, China, Albania and others to teach in medical and dental schools, holds retreats and much more. During spring break, CMDA students go on short-term trips all over the world. More than 240 CMDA students from just four Midwest states went on locally sponsored mission trips during their spring breaks. I’m a missionary at heart. We all should be part of God’s plan to heal, teach and preach so that everyone has an opportunity to become His child. God is up to something; do you know what it is? It is His goal is to complete the Great Commission. Your membership in CMDA is helping it happen in more ways than you will ever know. As you read on through this issue, I challenge you to ask God simply this, “What more do you want me to do to accomplish your great plan?” =
Missionaries at Heart
Use your smartphone to read the historical articles or visit www.cmda.org/reflections
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contents Today’s Christian Doctor
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VOLUME 43, NO. 4
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Winter 2012
The Christian Medical & Dental Associations® Changing Hearts in Healthcare – since 1931.
Missions: How Do We Relate 13 inMedical the Big Picture of Kingdom Work by Donald Thompson, MD, MPH&TM A 21st century strategy for short-term missions
18 A Lifetime of Opportunity
by Jeffrey D. Amstutz, DDS, MBA Using dentistry to impact lives through missions
Reality of Today’s 22 The Long-Term Medical Missions by Harold Paul Adolph, MD Exploring our observations of career medical missions
27 We Are All Missionaries
A collaborative article by CMDA Members Answering God’s call to serve on the mission field
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Classifieds
About the Cover
A Note From the Editor
Dr. Marc Bouchard, a family physician from Vermont, examines a young patient’s back during a June 2012 Global Health Outreach trip to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The clinic was set up in the Tokyo district of Port-au-Prince, considered to be the second poorest community in Haiti.
This winter edition of Today’s Christian Doctor is the final installment in our yearlong series, “Reflections of the Past in Today’s Spotlight.” Throughout the last year, we have explored a wide range of topics relUse your smartphone to read the historical articles evant to healthcare in today’s culture. I hope or visit www.cmda.org/reflections you have enjoyed this series just as much as I have. It has been quite a journey as we spent time reaching back into the history of CMDA to learn and gain a greater understanding of the issues we face today. Don’t forget to visit www.cmda.org/reflections to read the historical articles that served as inspiration for our authors. Are you interested in contributing to future editions of Today’s Christian Doctor? As we look ahead, we are looking for authors to cover a wide variety of topics including ethics, personal issues, technology, missions and more. If you would like to submit your article for publication, please email communications@ cmda.org. For additional information about the magazine’s submission guidelines, please visit www.cmda.org/tcd.
Photo courtesy of Bill Reichart, MDiv © 2012
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Transformations
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TODAY’S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR®
transformations Highlighting the inspirational, personal and transformational stories and testimonies from our members and ministries
EDITOR Mandi Mooney EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Gregg Albers, MD John Crouch, MD Autumn Dawn Galbreath, MD Curtis E. Harris, MD, JD Van Haywood, DMD Rebecca Klint-Townsend, MD Robert D. Orr, MD Debby Read, RN VP FOR COMMUNICATIONS Margie Shealy AD SALES Margie Shealy – 423-844-1000
My Transformation Story Remembering the CMDE Conference by Dr. William Rowlett CMDA Member since 1952
DESIGN Judy Johnson PRINTING Pulp CMDA is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). TODAY’S CHRISTIAN DOCTOR®, registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. ISSN 0009-546X, Winter 2012 Volume XLIII, No. 4. Printed in the United States of America. Published four times each year by the Christian Medical & Dental Associations® at 2604 Highway 421, Bristol, TN 37620. Copyright © 2012, Christian Medical & Dental Associations®. All Rights Reserved. Distributed free to CMDA members. Non-doctors (US) are welcome to subscribe at a rate of $35 per year ($40 per year, international). Standard presort postage paid at Bristol, Tenn. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Christian Medical & Dental Associations, P.O. Box 7500, Bristol, TN 37621-7500. Undesignated Scripture references are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Scripture references marked (KJV) are taken from the King James Version. Scripture references marked (MSG) are taken from The Message. Copyright© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Scripture references marked (NASB) are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright© 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Scripture references marked (NIV 2011) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture references marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright© 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Other versions are noted in the text.
For membership information, contact the Christian Medical & Dental Associations at: P.O. Box 7500, Bristol, TN 37621-7500; Telephone: 423-844-1000, or toll-free, 1-888-230-2637; Fax: 423-844-1005; E-mail: memberservices@cmda.org; Website: http://www.joincmda.org. If you are interested in submitting articles to be considered for publication, visit www.cmda.org/publications for submission guidelines and details. Articles and letters published represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations. Acceptance of paid advertising from any source does not necessarily imply the endorsement of a particular program, product, or service by CMDA. Any technical information, advice or instruction provided in this publication is for the benefit of our readers, without any guarantee with respect to results they may experience with regard to the same. Implementation of the same is the decision of the reader and at his or her own risk. CMDA cannot be responsible for any untoward results experienced as a result of following or attempting to follow said information, advice, or instruction.
One of our more interesting medical mission trips was to Liberia in January 1978. It was the first CMS medical education trip, and it was to become the Continuing Medical & Dental Education conference that annually alternates between Africa and the Far East to provide CME to doctors, as well as for fellowship and encouragement to many who worked in isolated situations. We chose to first participate in the CME program and the go to Phebe Hospital to do clinical work. After a week in Monrovia, we drove to Phebe Hospital which had been established by Lutherans. Our team was there for the express purpose of doing eye surgery. During the two weeks at Phebe, our group performed more than 100 eye procedures, mostly for cataract, and saw more than 500 additional patients for various problems. Many of our patients walked for two or three days through the bush, often led by a child or other family member because they were blind. There were only two ophthalmologists in the entire country and both of them never ventured outside of Monrovia. During our last days in the country, our group re-gathered in Monrovia. We shared experiences, some of which were dramatic and some humorous. The final statistics showed that our group treated 5,652 patients including 1,222 dental patients and performed 327 surgical procedures. We were really impressed by the missionaries we met, people who had dedicated their lives to the Lord and His service full-time in inconvenient places. In that respect, our brief three weeks didn’t amount to much, so it was a privilege for us to be with them and work alongside them.
In July, CMDA’s CEO Dr. David Stevens met at the U.S. State Department with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, along with Senator Lindsey Graham, USAID Director Rajiv Shah and four representatives from like-minded organizations. Dr. Stevens related the impact of mission hospitals and community health and development programs. CMA also helped encourage a new USAID written policy recently promulgated to address and prevent discrimination against faith-based organizations competing for federal grants.
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transformations Steury Scholarship Winner After a record total of 38 applicants, this year’s Steury Scholarship was awarded to Peter Wickwire, a first year medical student at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. Peter graduated from Wheaton College with a bachelor’s degree in biology, and his wife Caitlin is currently studying for a master’s in secondary education. As the son of career missionaries in Turkey, Peter came to Christ at an early age and spent his formative years in missional situations. His parents and school teachers daily taught him about Jesus and the tenants of the Christian faith. After a period of both personal and family turbulence, Peter began to truly understand his walk with Christ. “It was at this point that I began to experience God in a profoundly new way. My faith had been refined with fire,” said Peter. While he was in school at Wheaton College, Peter volunteered to go on a medical mission trip to Liberia to help see if the Lord wanted him to pursue his dream of attending medical school. According to Peter, this one trip impacted his life more than anything else as he faced the desperate needs of the local communities. “Immersion in this context with little to no medical training was daunting, but my experiences enabled me to tangibly perceive the acute need for doctors to go,” he said. “There was a drastic need for committed and competent physicians in Liberia, but if I had only witnessed a need, I would not have been convinced of my calling to enter into medical missions.” Peter shares CMDA’s desire to use healthcare as a way to be a Christian witness. “Whether growing up in the mission field in Turkey, attending a college committed to Christ and His kingdom or serving in a small African hospital, I have repeatedly come face to face with Christ’s unavoidable call for humble, selfless and servant-oriented ministry to those in desperate need of it. I have been challenged and inspired to align my motivation to pursue medicine with Christ’s global vision to use the church to uplift the downtrodden and to care of the broken and outcast of society,” he said. The purpose of the “Dr. and Mrs. Ernest Steury Medical Scholarship Fund” is to assist with the tuition of medical students who are committed to a career in foreign or domestic missions. Applications are evaluated on the basis of academic record, spiritual maturity, cross-culture experience, leadership ability, the student’s sense of call, references and extracurricular activities/talents. For more information regarding the Steury Scholarship, contact the office of the Chief Executive Officer or download the application at www.cmda.org/scholarships. 6
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Leaders Wanted to Transform Doctors, to Transform the World President Elections CMDA’s Presidential Nominating Committee has selected candidates for the 2013 President-elect election: - Dr. James Hines, Staff Physician at Valley OB/Gyn Clinic, P.C. in Saginaw, Michigan - Dr. Nathan Dale Willis, General Dentistry at Alamont Dental Associates, P.C. in Bristol, Tennessee Election details will be distributed to CMDA’s membership in early March 2013.
House of Representatives Are you interested in serving CMDA as a volunteer leader in the House of Representatives? CMDA’s House of Representatives meets once a year to approve bylaw changes, receive reports and approve the ethical positions of the organization. During the year, they also serve as twoway channels of communication between CMDA and its members. There is one representative from each state and from many of our local ministries. Interested applicants will be requested to submit a current CV to Executive Assistant Debra Deyton at executive@cmda.org. Visit www.cmda.org/hor to find out more and get involved.
Board of Trustees New trustees to CMDA’s Board of Trustees are nominated by a joint committee of the House of Representatives and the Board of Trustees. They look at the service record of potential nominees to CMDA, their leadership capabilities, expertise and Christian testimony. The nominees are then approved by both the house and the board. Trustees may serve up to two consecutive four-year terms and pay all their own expenses. The board meets three times a year to set policies, approve the budget, oversee finances and provide supervision to the CEO. For more information about the Board of Trustees, visit www.cmda.org/trustees.
NOMAD Machine In August, CMDA’s Dental Ministries held a press conference as Aribex, Inc., the worldwide leader in handheld x-ray technologies, donated its 10,000th NOMAD handheld dental x-ray unit to CMDA. Unlike the conventional wallmount and portable x-ray systems, the NOMAD handheld device is lightweight, battery-powered and can go anywhere. The NOMAD has rapidly become the xray device of choice for dental professionals around the world. “We’re proud that the NOMAD has been so widely accepted that we have reached the 10,000 unit milestone,” said Aribex President and CFO Ken Kaufman. “Since our roots are based on humanitarian efforts, we thought it appropriate to donate this historic unit to CMDA, an organization that does so much wonderful work among those who need the help so desperately.” CMDA will be utilizing the NOMAD as a diagnostic tool by dentists and dental students through mission trips with Global Health Outreach. “Receiving the NOMAD opens the door for CMDA to provide services to our various communities that we have never been able to offer before,” said Vice President for Dental Ministries Dr. Jeff Amstutz. “It is a milestone for our ministry and will make a tremendous difference.” It will also be used to assist the medical examiner for the state of Tennessee in identifying remains in difficult cases. The NOMAD already made its first journey when it traveled to a closed country in Asia on a GHO trip with Dr. Samuel Molind in September. During the trip, the medical and dental team saw more than 1,000 patients and performed 27 dental surgeries. Even in the midst of a modern facility, the NOMAD was a great asset in being able to take the x-ray to the patient and in helping diagnose cases on the ward and in the emergency room. The local doctors were amazed at the capabilities of the unit and had never seen such a thing before. According to Dr. Molind, the NOMAD will add a tremendous amount to CMDA’s capabilities on the field. Even in this unusual situation where advanced diagnostic equipment was available, it was a tremendous blessing to the patients. Visit www.cmda.org/nomad to start following the NOMAD machine as it travels around the world with CMDA’s mission trips.
“Receiving the NOMAD opens the door for CMDA to provide services to our various communities that we have never been able to offer before,” said Vice President for Dental Ministries Dr. Jeff Amstutz. “It is a milestone for our ministry and will make a tremendous difference.”
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transformations Focus on Resources CMDA provides a wide variety of resources and publications to help you as you merge your spiritual beliefs with your professional practice. Among our most popular resources are our audio magazines. We now offer three audio magazines as resources for our members. All three audio magazines are available on CMDA’s website and on iTunes.
Christian Doctor’s Digest – www.cmda.org/cdd Hosted by Dr. David Stevens, this popular bimonthly audio magazine is a favorite of CMDA members because it contains interviews on timely topics of interest to doctors and their families including finances, ethics, stress, healthcare management, marriage and others. CD versions of Christian Doctor’s Digest are distributed to our members, but it is also available in mp3 format.
Life Support – www.cmda.org/lifesupport Hosted by Dr. J. Scott Ries, this is the podcast for students and residents because it focuses on topics pertinent to their journey. Produced in mp3 format, you can listen to it online or download it to your mp3 player.
Dental Ministries Digest – www.cmda.org/dentist Hosted by Dr. Jeff Amstutz, this new audio magazine is a resource for Christian dentists with featured speakers including some of the nation’s top dental professionals. Future editions will be available online in mp3 format.
egional Ministries Northeast Region Scott Boyles, MDiv P.O. Box 7500 Bristol, TN 37621 Office: 423-844-1092 scott.boyles@cmda.org
Connecting you with other Christ-followers to help better motivate, equip, disciple and serve within your community Midwest Region Allan J. Harmer, ThM 9595 Whitley Dr. Suite 200 Indianapolis, IN 46240-1308 Office: 317-566-9040 cmdamw@cmda.org
Western Region Michael J. McLaughlin, MDiv P.O. Box 2169 Clackamas, OR 97015-2169 Office: 503-522-1950 west@cmda.org
Southern Region William D. Gunnels, MDiv 106 Fern Dr. Covington, LA 70433 Office: 985-502-7490 south@cmda.org
Interested in getting involved? Contact your regional director today!
Bringing Hope to the Hopeless Julie Greenwalt, a PGY-1 resident, was one of 65 medical professionals who traveled to Nicaragua earlier this year to serve the least, the last and the lost. It was a trip that Julie will never forget. Reaching out to a hopeless victim of sex trafficking, here is Julie’s account: “I had the wonderful privilege to go on the 2012 Nicaragua CMDA trip with a group of 60 of the most incredible doctors, dentists and students, half of which were from the University of Florida. On the third morning, our devotion focused on the injustice of human trafficking and the reality that Nicaragua has the highest incidence rate in the western hemisphere. It was heavy on my heart and not a coincidence that just one week prior to this mission trip, I had run a half marathon to raise money for a Christian organization that rescues women from this terrible industry. Thus, God had prepared me for an encounter with a 30-year-old Nicaraguan patient who would find her way to our clinic. Immediately, I noticed that she would not make eye contact with my translator, Rosa or me. I thought this was strange —particularly when she answered yes to every medical complaint during my evaluation. I suspected abuse, but I did not know where to begin. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit gave me the words to say: ‘May I pause for a second and ask you why you came all this way to our medical clinic?’ In a warmer tone she responded to Rosa, ‘I heard that your team was here to bring hope.’ “I was moved by the beauty of her words. I reassured her that we have hope, but not in the medicine I was about to give her. She then told her story of sordid sexual abuse and betrayal that led her into forced prostitution. It was so horrific that by the end of it, Rosa and I were sobbing. When I mentioned that I came to tell her that Jesus still loves her, this once hopeless woman made eye contact with me for the first time. ‘No, God could never love me with all that I have done,’ she said. I then read the account of the adulterer from John 8. I explained that while the Pharisees wanted to stone her, Jesus forgave her. After telling her that Christ loves us just the way we are, this young Nicaraguan woman broke down in tears. I then had the privilege to lead her to the Lord. It was the highlight of my trip, my divine appointment. This is why I chose a career in medicine: to bring hope to those in need! Not hope in medical care which is short lived, but hope in Christ, the great physician who can heal our hearts and souls for eternity! This is why I do missions! It is about bringing hope to the hopeless and letting the Lord work through you to call His children home.”
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. . . in Missions “God ordained, put together, prepared and worked in and through another wonderful GHO team and the amazing thing is that I get to be part of it! Forty-six people from 10 states and Canada served the people of San Miguel. This was another very young team with 33 under the age of 30 and 25 under the age of 25. God continues to raise up a remnant from this ‘Y’ generation that He is using and will use in a powerful way! I truly love investing in them, mentoring and serving with them! This is my passion!” – A team leader on a GHO trip to El Salvador
& Heard the CMDA voice
“I would like to talk to you about what has developed from that first conference you participated in four years ago. There are now two conferences each year, one directed towards nationals studying the medical professionals and held in Russian, the other directed towards foreign students studying in Ukraine and held in English. Combined attendance of these conferences is between 550 to 750 students each year representing potentially 77 countries from Africa, the Middle East and Asia. We have also encouraged the beginning of medical fellowships in each of the 17 medical institutes.” – President of a medical outreach in Ukraine working with MEI “The medications we prescribed will run out, the surgical patients we treated will get sick again and the dental problems we addressed will recur, but the love of God will never cease.” – A student on a GHO trip to Kenya “There are too many highlights to list at the moment but as team leaders, we are so very proud of the spirit and unity of the team. God has caused a tremendous transformation in the hearts of every team member. Two of the team members have come to saving grace and have accepted the Lord Jesus as Savior and Lord. We rejoice as there is no greater delight in seeing that as the ultimate fruit of team development.” – A team leader on a GHO trip to Nicaragua
Website Directory Transformation
Equipping
Campus Ministries cmda.org/student Chapel & Prayer Ministries cmda.org/chapel Community Ministries cmda.org/ccm Dental Ministries cmda.org/dentist Medical Malpractice cmda.org/mmm Side By Side cmda.org/sidebyside Singles cmda.org/singles Specialty Sections cmda.org/specialtysections Women in Medicine & Dentistry cmda.org/wimd
Christian Doctor’s Digest cmda.org/cdd Conferences cmda.org/meetings Doing the Right Thing cmda.org/rightthing Donations cmda.org/donate Human Trafficking cmda.org/trafficking Life Skills Institute cmda.org/lifeskills Today’s Christian Doctor cmda.org/tcd Weekly Devotions cmda.org/devotions
Voice Service Center for Medical Missions cmda.org/cmm Global Health Outreach cmda.org/gho Global Health Relief cmda.org/ghr Medical Education International cmda.org/mei Membership joincmda.org Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons cmda.org/paacs Placement cmda.org/placement Scholarships cmda.org/scholarships
American Academy of Medical Ethics ethicalhealthcare.org Washington Office cmda.org/washington Freedom2Care freedom2care.org
Social Media Blogs cmda.org/blogs Facebook facebook.com/cmdanational Twitter twitter.com/cmdanational YouTube youtube.com/cmdavideos
. . . on Campus “CMDA Bible studies and monthly meetings allow me to refocus my attention on the reason I wanted to become a physician in the first place. In the midst of a hectic schedule of studying, it is important to see that practicing physicians and other students are setting aside time to spend in fellowship with the LORD and with each other.” – A CMDA student leader “CMDA large group has been a place I have been continually challenged to live my life 100 percent for Jesus. Because I often hear a message and quickly forget it, the large group time has been a great weekly reminder of why I came to medical school. I have been challenged to be a devoted Christ-follower who happens to be a doctor, rather than a doctor who is also a Christian.” – A first year medical student “Given the academic nature of medical school, it is really refreshing to have a time where we can have a conversation about faith with classmates on a regular basis. I am learning better what it means to integrate my faith and my profession through the help of CMDA.” – A CMDA student leader “Having a Christian fellowship on campus was extremely encouraging to me during my first year of medical school. It was a good reminder to keep God first even in the midst of a busy and often stressful time. Being connected to other brothers and sisters on campus helped me stay grounded and encouraged me to grow in my faith.” – A medical student “It is such a blessing to see so many students who are young adults come together to support each other in this mission. Being in medical and dental school, it is easy to get bogged down in our numerous commitments and responsibilities where the emphasis is on our mental and physical health. CMDA has been essential in helping me to re-center myself in what is most important to my well-being as a future physician . . . my spiritual health.” – A CMDA student leader
Have you been
transformed? Are you
transforming others? We want to hear from you Send your transformation story, letter or photos to communications@cmda.org or to P.O. Box 7500, Bristol, TN 37621. Please include an email address for us to contact you.
We want to hear your story It can be a simple comment about a CMDA ministry; it can be an account of your experiences on a missions trip; it can be a profile of a member who has had a huge impact upon you; it can be photos from a campus meeting; it can be statistics showing how your trip served the needy; it can truly be anything— we want to see how your work is making a difference.
We want to hear your ideas
“Personally, being involved in CMDA has served as a constant reminder of the reason why I am in medical school, and to remind myself of my true priorities of keeping my relationship with Christ before anything else.” – A CMDA student leader
Do you have a great idea for Today’s Christian Doctor? Send your ideas to communications@cmda.org.
“CMDA keeps us grounded as students and reminds us who brought us here and who will carry us through. CMDA reminds us that we are here for each other and that we are not struggling alone. CMDA brings us back to the Word.” – A CMDA student leader
Transformations showcasing the impact of CMDA one story at a time
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In This Year . . . Around the World - The United Nations sponsored ceasefire brought an end to the Indo-Pakistan War of 1947. The war resulted in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which is still continuing today. - Los Angeles, California received its first recorded snowfall. - The North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., creating the NATO defense alliance. - The Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb. Its design imitated the American plutonium bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945. - The People's Republic of China was officially founded. - Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific opened on Broadway and went on to become R&H’s second longest-running musical. In This Year . . . at CMDA - The name was Christian Medical Society, the headquarters were based in Chicago, Illinois, and Richard E. Scheel, MD, served as President. - The first edition of the Christian Medical Society Journal was published with William A. Johnson, MD, and Roger K. Larson, MD, serving as editors-in-chief. - CMS held its third annual convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Approximately 70 physicians, dentists, medical students, nurses and allied professionals attended this weekend conference. - “The League of Brother Physicians” was created to have physicians “adopt” a medical missionary to help create personal relationships and help in practical ways.
Medical Missions: How Do We Relate in the Big Picture of Kingdom Work? by Donald Thompson, MD, MPH&TM
Exploring the strategies and tactics of cross-cultural medical missions in the 21st century
A
s the church’s young pastor shared his fears over the possible arrival of oppressive government authorities, the tension and the fear in his voice was palpable. If they showed up, they would look for any excuse to close the church and silence its efforts to spread the gospel. And our short-term medical missions trip just might be the excuse the government needed. As an innovative way to protect the young pastor and his church while also alleviating his concerns, we went ahead and reorganized our pharmacy and evangelization methods to operate in a less obtrusive way. And it is a good thing we acted proactively because several govern-
Use your smartphone to read the historical articles or visit www.cmda.org/reflections
ment officials arrived the very next day to inspect our operations. Despite the changes, the contrast of our team’s demeanor in word, deed and touch as they provided medical services still opened new doors to evangelism. As a result, numerous patients recognized that their poor relationships with husbands, children and grandchildren reflected being out of relationship with the Savior, with many making decisions to follow Christ and accept His redemptive gift. Just as we did on this trip, subtly masking the ultimate goal of spreading the gospel is a necessity shared by countless medical missions teams throughout the world, C HRISTIAN M EDICAL & D ENTAL A SSOCIATIONS
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Medical Missions
particularly in the 10/40 window. We do it to protect the relationships that are so essential to every aspect of medical missions. In addition to being sensitive to the spiritual component of the physical symptoms in each person we see, we must now be more vigilant and aware of how our actions with patients impact our relationships with local and national governments and ministries of health, between our national partners and local churches, and between our patients and national partners. When any of these relationships are out of balance, we hamper the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And too often, medical missions efforts fail to have long-lasting results, frequently because of inadequate consideration of these multiple relationship issues during trip planning. But utilizing such tactics opens a quagmire of other alarming concerns. Are we at risk of profaning the Lord’s altar through our medical missions strategies? Are we doing everything we can ethically and morally to be used by our Lord to honor Him with the resources He entrusts to us? Now that we are in the 21st century, we have ample evidence to answer these questions. Are we paying attention? Learning from History Looking back, it is apparent that we struggle with the same issues faced by those who went before us, so we must learn from their wisdom and experience. Medicine and dentistry have changed dramatically in the last 60 years. National governments have thrown off the dominating yoke of colonialism and passed through several generations of self-governance. As responsibility for providing for the basic health needs of the population has been assumed by various national leaders, both faithbased and secular external partners are adjusting their strategies to assist in long-term health sector capacity development.
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Yet, significant needs and gaps persist. Many developing nations lack the capacity to provide for the most basic healthcare needs of their populations. Wars, famine and disease continue to strike down the most vulnerable and prevent others from taking the basic steps to provide for their own needs. Religious oppression keeps many in physical and spiritual bondage. It is to this environment that we are called to serve. The environment of medical missions changed during recent decades, but the motivation for our efforts must continue to focus on introducing the unreached to a redemptive relationship with the Great Physician. Our medical, dental and surgical skills allow us the unique opportunity to simultaneously minister to physical, emotional and spiritual needs. We can benefit greatly by reviewing the challenge areas identified by our predecessors: strategy, mechanism and sustainment. Our continued efforts in medical missions must include better preparation by addressing these areas, leading to improved outreach. Strategy The challenge of developing medical missions strategy was identified by the Secretary of the American Bible Society Eugene Nida in the first sentence of his article, “Where Does Medicine Fit In?” published in the third issue of the Christian Medical Society Journal in 1949. Nida was not medically trained, but he was a linguist. In the article, he provides some of the most salient strategic advice that continues to be ignored by many working in cross-cultural missions today. He states, “Medicine can be the ‘key’ to many aspects of the missionary advance, but a key only has value in so far as it fits into a lock. (It should be) an instrument to unlock the complex antagonisms against the gospel . . . allowing deeper penetration into the life and needs of the people, in order that Christ may be made fully known to the people.” He adds that medical missions plays an advanced position on a well-balanced team and opens up territory for the effective penetration of the gospel. Effective strategy recognizes both the scientific aspect of the care that may be provided and the cultural and spiritual context in which it is delivered. Too many of us look at medical missions as an “either-or” proposition: either we deliver high-quality, scientific medical care; or we evangelize to meet spiritual needs. Dr. Arden Almquist describes these two extremes in his 1967 article, “Scientific Medicine in a Prescientific Culture.” One extreme considers medical work as humanitarian service given to men, leaving the spiritual discussions and the question of conversion to the missionary evangelist or the hospital chaplain. The work is done in the name of Christ, and the “Christian witness” is to practice the highest level of scientific medicine possible. The other extreme considers patients as a captive audience for
Medical Missions
evangelism. Scientific medicine is merely a means to an end; a gift of God to be used to attract people to hear the preaching of the gospel in the hope of inducing the conversion of the patients. Almquist suggests that this represents the prostitution of the practice of medicine. His strong words emphasize the damage done then and now by poorly planned medical missions efforts that get the respective relationships wrong. By the use of the shocking phrase “prostitution,” we should remember the words of the prophet Malachi quoting the accusation by the Lord of hosts of the priests of Israel (Malachi 1:6-12). His representatives are accused of profaning and defiling the altar of the Lord by offering blind, lame and sick sacrifices. Are we not at risk of doing the same when we fail to properly proclaim a saving relationship with Christ as the solution to whatever ails us, be it physical, mental, social or spiritual? Prostituting and profaning are terribly accurate descriptions of sloppy missions strategies.
must understand cultural dynamics, including both their home culture and the culture in which they are serving. Almquist cites African culture where family is emphasized, rather than Western culture’s emphasis on the individual. In this African culture, man is community, and the community includes the living, the dead and the divinities. Sickness may be caused by a curse, a visitation by the shade of some neglected relative or one’s sins. The African “healer” uses supernatural means to affect a cure, though his medicine may not be wholly supernatural. Some remedies may be in accord with scientific medicine. In his 1969 article, “Growing Pains,” Dr. William Nute describes steps to being effective in missions that most of us completely ignore today. He points out that the real need is not for highly trained professionals, but for a large number of people who are thoroughly trained to perform well a relatively small number of much needed procedures. Few missions groups focus on this today. He says that it is essential to determine how medical care can be delivered within the economic limitations of the people who need it. We should reject the most expensive and specialized diagnostic and treatment procedures; instead, we should strive to discover just how many corners can be cut without incurring an unacceptable level of risk. Countless numbers of people in the world today live on the wrong side of this line of unacceptable risk and are dying from malnutrition and disease. Perhaps our interventions should be population-based efforts that bring large numbers across this line so they survive, rather than provide a few with high tech, expensive care while leaving the masses to suffer and die? Sustainment Long-term impact depends both on the senders/goers and on the recipients. More and more service is being provided by short-term medical missionaries who may
Mechanism To avoid this struggle between the two strategic extremes, Almquist describes a mechanism that helps to implement an appropriate strategy. To be effective, the mechanism requires a well-prepared medical missionary who cultivates humility within and agrees to treat the patient as a person. He points out the obvious that we so frequently overlook: we should be aware that patients needing care may simultaneously be hyponourished, parasitized, detribalized and sinful, while also needing protein, instruction in hygiene, acceptance into a new community life and a Savior. They are not looking for just a simple worm cure, hernia repair or tranquilizer. We now learn in our formal medical training that this is the bio-psycho-social-spiritual approach to the whole person. So this concept has at least been adopted in modern medicine, though it is not consistently practiced. Furthermore, medical missionaries C HRISTIAN M EDICAL & D ENTAL A SSOCIATIONS
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Medical Missions serve for as little as a week. The number of long-term medical missionaries is shrinking, and those left behind often struggle for funds. A decades-long battle exists between those who support long-term missions and those who support short-term missions. Although this struggle has wasted many words, it has yielded a small degree of redemption as both groups have been forced to examine the strategy and mechanisms they employ. Some arguments suggest that short-term mission trips compete with local projects at home or divert funding for long-term projects abroad. Robert Priest provides a contemporary critique of this argument in the June 2012 issue of Christianity Today by pointing out that these are not competing alternatives. The two do not compete for the same blocks of discretionary time or money already 16
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in church coffers. When properly planned, a short-term mission trip functions as a sustained and communal time of spiritual formation away from the obligations, distractions and routines of everyday life. This is demonstrated scripturally as early as Exodus 8:27 by Moses. Furthermore, a mission trip is other-oriented, placing witness, service, human need and relationship at the center of spiritual formation. Both time and funds often come from other sources—the short-term participants cash in their social capital through their network of friends, colleagues and relatives rather than the church’s treasury. Priest says that the real issue is whether prosperous Christians will decide to spend their vacation time and travel money self-indulgently, perhaps at an all-inclusive resort, or expend that time and money on
How Do We Fit In? As we continue striving to meet both the physical and spiritual needs of nations through medical missions, we need to be more deliberate. We must acknowledge that we have a set of goals for the medical missionary, as well as a set of goals for the recipient. Both require careful, well integrated planning in order to see the goals achieved. Worker Goals: This is as important for the short-term worker as it is for the long-term worker. While the longterm worker often has more time (and commitment) to prepare and learn, the short-term worker may have littleto-no preparation unless this becomes a focus, as it must. Cultural preparation is key to effective work across cultures and worldviews, and, as Nida pointed out in 1949, every missionary must be able to lead people to the Cross and on to personal victory over sin. Despite pressing medical requirements, the truly successful cross-cultural medical missionary takes time to deal with people’s spiritual needs, while quickly learning that so many of people’s woes come from the sin of the heart and not the ignorance of the mind. Recipient Goals: Another contemporary author provides a yardstick for measuring recipient goals. In Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help—And How to Reverse It, Robert Lupton summarizes the bottom line: never do for the poor what they have (or could have) the capacity to do for themselves. He adds indicators of the five steps of creating dependency: give once and you elicit appreciation; give twice and you create anticipation; give three times and you create expectations; give four times and it becomes entitlement; give five times and you establish dependency.
It is telling that many of the same issues we faced in today’s medical missions were identified as problem areas more than 60 years ago. While some groups have taken steps to avoid repeating the errors of the past, it is imperative that we not only learn from these lessons, but that we also educate, encourage and exhort those who continue to make these errors. The Almighty has provided us with this knowledge and experience, and we have a responsibility as medical missionaries to mentor and disciple those who wish to follow us. May we carry out this responsibility with fear and trembling. =
Medical Missions
behalf of others through a mission trip. The key to sustainment in the host country is to build needed capacity that is desired by nationals. In his 1967 article, “A Drop in the Bucket,” Dr. Robert Schenck prophetically notes that governments in host countries are becoming ever more independent, and their standards of medical care are ever more sophisticated. In contrast, Almquist notes that medical missions have too often suffered from low professional standards. More fruitful methods of medical missions work may include training national workers at several educational levels and helping to set up referral facilities for them to use within their home countries.
Donald Thompson, MD, MPH&TM, serves as the Director of Global Health Outreach, the clinical short-term medical missions division of CMDA. Don attended the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, and subsequently trained and is a fellow in both family medicine, and public health and general preventive medicine. He earned a master of public health and tropical medicine from Tulane University, and a master of arts in cross-cultural ministries from Dallas Theological Seminary. He has faculty appointments in family medicine and preventive medicine and biometrics, and most recently worked at the George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia, where he worked on medical and public health preparedness. Don has been a member of CMDA since medical school, and has been on short-term trips to Afghanistan, Albania, Ethiopia, Honduras, Mexico, Moldova, Nepal and Nicaragua. He particularly enjoys working alongside national physicians and medical students, learning from them while meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of patients. He praises our Lord for being blessed with godly wife Miriam and a quiver of five arrows and two darts: Catherine and her husband James; Jennifer; Joshua and his wife Kristi; and grandkids Elijah Zion and Eliana Jubilee Wise.
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In This Year . . . Around the World - Nearly two years after its passage by the U.S. Senate, the 24th Amendment prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections was ratified. - The Beatles vaulted to the No. 1 spot on the U.S. singles charts for the first time with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” - Sidney Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award in the category Best Actor in a Leading Role in Lilies of the Field. - Nelson Mandela and seven others were sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa, and sent to the Robben Island prison. - President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, abolishing racial segregation in the United States. - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to him for leading nonviolent resistance to end racial prejudice in the U.S. In This Year . . . at CMDA - The name was Christian Medical Society, the headquarters were based in Oak Park, Illinois, Walter O. Spitzer, MD, was the General Director and C. James Krafft, MD, served as President. - Lewis P. Bird joined CMS as a Northeastern regional field staff member. He served with CMS until his retirement in 1996. - The First Latin America Congress was held in Quito, Ecuador. It was a product of the CMS International Convention on Missionary Medicine to address problems in specific locales. - CMS was asked by the Dominican Republic to help establish infant rehydration centers to improve infant mortality rates.
A Lifetime of Opportunity
by Jeffrey D. Amstutz, DDS, MBA
Recognizing and responding to our environment and God’s call in dental missions
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hrough dentistry, we have the ability to drastically and immediately impact the lives of our patients— whether it is by fixing the fractured incisor of the mother of the bride on her daughter’s wedding day in your hometown or restoring the smile of a young lady escaping the horrors of a life of forced prostitution a half a world away. Whatever the circumstance, we have the ability to positively impact people. In the span of my lifetime, dentistry has made tremendous advancements in understanding the masticatory function, preventing dental caries and other diseases, developing new dental materials and providing treatment options for our patients. Perhaps one of the biggest strides has been the recognition of the integral role of oral health to overall health of our patients. But even more integral to the whole person than dental health is spiritual health. In reviewing two historical articles from the Christian Medical Society Journal which were published in 1964 (the year I was born) and focused on dental missions, I
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Use your smartphone to read the historical 1964 articles or visit www.cmda.org/reflections
couldn’t help but wonder: with all the advances we’ve made in both our understanding and technology, have we made the corresponding and significant advances in our impact in world missions through dentistry? If the answer is, “no,” what do we need to do to take advantage of the lifetime of opportunities waiting before us? We need to recognize an ever-changing environment. When I first arrived at Bongolo Hospital in the jungles of Gabon, Africa in 2000 to begin a dental clinic and training program, we had no internet access. Our email came in just one or two words at a time via ham radio. A simple word document attached to an email clogged the system and shut down access for the entire hospital team for the rest of the day. At that same hospital today, doctors are able to video chat live with specialists around the world and new levels of real time consultation and telemedicine, never imagined in the 1960s, are reality. In his 1964 article “1:300,000,” Dr. Richard Topazian
do we attempt to find ways skirt the system or do we adapt our efforts to a changing environment?
A Lifetime of Opportunity
reported that spending on dental treatment in the U.S. had reached $2 billion, while the ratio of dentists to the population of many countries, including India where Dr. Topazian served, was only 1:300,000. Thanks to a concentrated effort (202 dental schools now graduate about 13,550 students each year) the ratio of dentists to the population in India today is dramatically improved at 1:10,000.1 Interestingly in that same span, annual spending on dental treatment in the U.S. grew to a reported $104.8 billion in 2010.2 Some countries like India have made tremendous improvement in closing the gap in dental care as they seek to improve healthcare. But for much of the developing world, that gap is still wide. For Africa as a whole, the dentist to population ratio remains at 1:150,000 (with large areas within the continent without a single qualified professional) while the industrialized world reports a ratio of 1:2,000 on average.3 Our world is rapidly changing, as are some of the opportunities that were available to us in the past. Rapidly fading are the days when a dentist could travel to a foreign country with some instruments, packages of gauze, donated and about to expire (or recently expired) anesthetic, antibiotics and pain medications, set up a clinic and begin treating patients, as was the case for my first short-term dental trip. While there may still be a few places in the world where this can happen, most countries now require advanced paperwork and medical registration for visiting healthcare workers, an advance list of medications with a minimum of six months to a year out on expiration dates, specific letters of invitation to come provide care and acceptance by local and/or national medical authorities. How we respond to these and other changes is important to our work in dental missions. Do we simply stop going if governments won’t readily accept us and make it more difficult for us to help? It becomes frustrating, time consuming and expensive to have to “jump through the hoops.” Do we continue to push through,
We need to respond to an ever-changing environment. We are often faced with hurdles that prevent us from taking the next step. In his 1964 article “Operating on Two Fronts,” Dr. Robert Wildrick faced questions and doubts about how he could afford to leave his dental practice for two or three months and spend all that money on transportation and equipment to provide care in a foreign country. He responded simply and without justification, “Well, I felt I could, if it were God’s will, so I got over that hurdle.” End of discussion. He went and God provided. We too are equipped to continue to carry out the great commission and share Jesus with a lost and hurting world—in spite of the process becoming more difficult to do it the way we want to do it and have been doing it for years. God does not call us without equipping us for the task at hand. Both Dr. Topazian and Dr. Wildrick were pioneers in dental missions. We need more pioneers like them today. It is reported that the total number of Christians who participated in short-term missions in 1965 was just 540.4 It is important to note that is not the number of dentists who participated, but the total number of Christians who participated in any type of short-term missions. Dr. Wildrick was truly laying the groundwork for a new way to help reach the lost. Today, well over 1.5 million people participate in short-term missions annually.5 Dr. Topazian helped develop several areas of dental missions including teaching at international universities, establishing oral and maxillofacial programs and providing dental continuing education to missionary dentists. Early in his career, he clearly saw the opportunities the dental profession affords in helping to reach the lost internationally. Today, we have tremendous possibilities including: teaching at dental schools in the
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A Lifetime of Opportunity
U.S. and around the world; training providers of dental care and promoting dental health and prevention of disease; providing continuing dental education to both U.S. cross-cultural workers and dentists; working with international students at universities; establishing international dental residency programs; mentoring new dentists and dental students; and the list goes on. Within our small dental community as a subset of the body of Christ, God provides for all the things He desires to accomplish through us. We need to simply take that next step in our walk with Him.
We need to recognize what God requires. Throughout our careers and into retirement, we are faced with countless choices about what to do with our time, finances and other resources. While it seems to me that the demands on our time must certainly be greater today than at any other time, Dr. Wildrick suggested otherwise. He stated, “Time is another of our problems today. We take practice management courses to learn to budget time and fight a crowded schedule. We keep our noses to this clock of time. Yet, while we are so careful not to waste time, we are letting it slip out of our grasp.” The demands on our time and other resources are great, perhaps even greater than the demands faced in the 1960s. As we struggle to determine how best to allocate our resources, what does God require? What does God expect when it comes to dental missions and living for Him in the context of our profession? What does He expect of us as church and community leaders, as spouses, as parents, as students, as employers, as employees, as dental professionals? Will God be pleased if we set aside one day each month to treat those without the means to compensate us? Will He be pleased if we go on an international mission trip to provide care to those who have never seen a dentist? Will He be satisfied if I balance my time so that I can be in His Word, have time for my family, serve at church and still practice dentistry? Perhaps if I pick up my family and move to Africa, God will be pleased. The people of 20
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Israel asked similar questions and the prophet Micah responded by saying, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). When I first really began to dig deeper into the Word, God put a desire on my heart to do more for missions. Because I naturally wanted to see myself as self-made and desire to be self-directed, I immediately chose the role of “provider” for my part in kingdom work. After all, I was already providing for my family, my patients, my church—and now I could provide for missions and help God reach the lost. But over time, God began teaching me what it means to walk humbly with Him. One of the most difficult things for me in my walk was giving up control and going from someone who provides for others to someone who is dependent upon God to provide through others. This was perhaps my biggest obstacle in getting to the mission field and, more importantly, in learning what it means to walk humbly with my God. That learning process continues. God doesn’t need our sacrifice. He says that He has “. . . no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens” (Psalm 50:9). What God desires is simply you, someone willing to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with Him. This is what pleases Him, this is what He requires.
We need to maximize our lifetime. Each time we take a new step of faith, God continues to direct us as we walk humbly with Him. Some He may lead to continuously give financially so that others may go; some to serve on a short-term basis to meet immediate dental needs in areas with no relief from dental pain; and some to leave their practice and/or plans behind and move with their families to another region of the world to provide compassionate care and teach, train and disciple other dentists and students. The dental and spiritual needs remain as great as they were a lifetime ago. The opportunities for teaching and
Parkash, Hari, et al. “Dental Workforce Issues: A Global Concern.” Journal of Dental Education 70.11 (2006): 22-26. Palmer, Craig. “Dental Spending Growth Resumes.” ADA News 10 Jan. 2012: Web. 4 Oct. 2012. 3 Op. cit., Parkash. 4 Swanson, Eric. “Increasing the Effectiveness of Short-Term Missions: Making a Bigger Difference in the Harvest Itself.” Leadership Network. 2011. 5 Op. cit., Swanson. 1
2
Jeffrey D. Amstutz, DDS, MBA,
training, serving long-term and visiting short-term clinics are perhaps greater now than ever before. As Dr. Wildrick stated in the conclusion of his article, “We know our business. Time is running out. People are searching. People are dying. Let us not concentrate on security and get tangled up with material comforts at home. Let us as Christian dentists take the initiative and use our talents in this world ministry to bring Christ to the nations.” We are blessed and have been given a lifetime of opportunity. But only a lifetime. Don’t let your time run out. =
is a graduate of Case Western Reserve and its School of Dental Medicine. He also completed an MBA at Kent State University. In 1999, he and his wife Carrie were called to the mission field where they opened a dental clinic in Gabon, established a program to train Gabonese dental technicians and launched a mobile ministry to reach remote villages. They also served in Mali and Senegal. He joined CMDA in 2012 as the Vice President for Dental Ministries, Peter E. Dawson Chair of Dentistry. He is focusing on expanding CMDA’s ministry, services and resources for dental members, as well as intensifying outreach to dental schools in the U.S.
A Lifetime of Opportunity
Bibliography
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In This Year . . . Around the World - An explosion occurred aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii, killing 27 and injuring 314. - The first Earth Day was organized after a blow-out on Union Oil's Platform spilled 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil into a channel and onto the beaches of Santa Barbara County in Southern California. - The Boeing 747 made its maiden flight and the first Concorde test flight was conducted. - Former United States General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower died after a long illness. - Charles de Gaulle stepped down as president of France after suffering defeat in a referendum. - Followers of Charles Manson conducted several murder raids. - A coup in Libya ousted King Idris and brought Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to power. - To draft troops for the Vietnam War, the United States held its first draft lottery since World War II. In This Year . . . at CMDA - The name was Christian Medical Society, the headquarters were based in Oak Park, Illinois, Walter O. Spitzer, MD, resigned as General Director and Christopher Reilly, MD, served as both the interim director and President for the next two years. - CMS became more internationally involved through Medial Groups Missions and its work with the newly founded International Congress of Christian Physicians, which later became the International Christian Medical & Dental Association. - The bi-monthly published Christian Medical Society Journal was distributed to approximately 7,000 readers. - Topics of interest discussed in the Journal included human genetics, abortion, evolution, naturalism and healthcare reform.
The Realit y of
by Harold Paul Adolph, MD
Today’s Long-Term Medical Missions
A long-term missionary doctor reflects on his father’s historical articles and his own experiences to explore today’s medical missions
Use your smartphone to read the historical 1949 article
Use your smartphone to read the historical 1969 article
or visit www.cmda.org/reflections
P
erhaps our concept of a career missionary doctor’s family might sound similar to this . . . a poor missionary surgeon and his family give up a “good American doctor’s family life” to live in endless poverty. They suffer through a hand-to-mouth existence in an African country full of intrigue, Satan worship, witchcraft, fear, poisonings, arson, coups, Marxist takeovers, massive killings and persecution of Christians. Their children are forced to be homeschooled by their parents. They have jobs at the mission hospital from a very young age. Their future education and life is tenuous at best. They can’t possibly amount to anything and will probably die early of some terrible tropical disease that is yet to be unearthed. When you consider all these factors, we should pity the
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missionary family. But that scenario isn’t reality. The reality for the children is far from tenuous. After becoming the hospital engineer at the age of 11, the son earned a doctorate in science engineering in natural energy resource development for the third world. He has worked in Kenya for the last 25 years with his family. The daughter became a nurse when she started making Sunday morning rounds at the age of seven, circulating in the operating room at 10 and assisting in surgeries at 13. She eventually became a family nurse practitioner. The reality is that the general surgeon and his family had a very fulfilling career. The family enjoyed the challenge of helping people with no other chance to receive help across the entire scope of medical and surgical care. They
“One thing remains sure, there abides an open door of opportunity to all of us to make Christ known throughout the world as Jesus said, “Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it” (Revelation 3:8). The closing of certain doors should serve to help us to be in readiness for the real door of opportunity when it opens to us, as was the case with the Apostle Paul. Let us not bemoan the shut doors and remain inert and irresponsive. . . . As we wait upon God, the open door of service that He has prepared for us becomes manifest to us.
For the Christian there can be no truly closed doors, only doors that shut before us to keep us from straying from the wide open door of God’s will.” Do your misconceptions of the “reality” of medical missions stop you from answering God’s call? Take this experience for example. As a result of our mission hospital in Africa being taken over by a changing government, we spent more than 12 years working in an American suburban community hospital. At first glance, such a setback would appear to be a clear sign of a closed door on our ministry. Instead, the opportunity allowed us to help build a multi-million dollar hospital for the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons and assist another hospital substantially. How about this example? In the last few years, I’ve been busy worrying about how we were going to pay the salaries of 214 employees at the hospital in the midst of 100 percent inflation and worldwide borderline financial collapse while evil increased on every side. So God chose to give us only $2 million in the last two years. It is very good that I worried about it! He even included a new CT scanner with three-year maintenance insurance and a building to house it along with the new digital x-ray system and C-arm. These were not even on my prayer wish list!
The Reality of Today’s Long-Term Medical Missions
were overwhelmed by seeing thousands change their traveling destination to heaven. For our family on our first furlough after six years away from America, the reality was that we were “forced” to drive a black Mercedes with a brand new motor while claiming severe poverty at each church we visited. God also supplied us with five days in Switzerland on trains, a week in a houseboat on the canals of Holland and an ocean voyage from England through the Panama Canal to the West Coast. So what is the reality of today’s long-term medical missions? For the 491 medical auxiliaries my wife and I discipled during our career, the reality is that they are still practicing their faith, many are sent throughout the country to share the Good News and they contribute to more than 1,200 churches. For a hospital in southern rural Africa, the reality is that it now has 10 expatriate specialists, with two more coming this year and another four couples asking to come for a family practice training program. The reality and the truth is that our God does provide, protect, guide and do the impossible. Knowing that reality, then you too can trust Him completely for your own long-term medical mission service…even if it is a short term of 50 years. As the son of a career medical missionary, I’ve been observing medical missions in action for almost 80 years. My father Dr. Paul Earnest Adolph felt the call of God at the age of 11 in 1911. My call was at the age of 14. Our son’s call was in college at the age of 18 and our daughter’s was at the age of seven. In March 1969, my father wrote “Closed Doors,” an article published by the Christian Medical Society Journal which focused on following God’s call even when we feel the door is closed. He wrote,
Dr. Paul Adolph (right) joins his son Dr. Harold Adolph and his family on an in-country flight to a tribal area in Ethiopia for a conference to help with the treatment of difficult patients.
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The Reality of Today’s Long-Term Medical Missions
For today’s applicants to missionary service, it is easy to get sidetracked from their missionary goals. Some tell stories of being convinced of God’s purpose for their lives much later in life. Others chose a different path after incurring high debts during training. Potential applicants also have vastly more opportunities than their predecessors to visit their future locations and meet the teams they will be working with in the future. Onsite visits offer a chance to interact with the staff, review the challenges and determine if the position is a right fit. In addition, sending agencies and hospitals are much more flexible with vacations and home leave. In the 1950s, my father once spent an entire prayer letter explaining why he felt forced to leave China two weeks early during his first seven-year commitment due to a large army causing extensive chaos and carnage less than 60 miles away. Today, we are quite happy to have expatriate specialists at our mission hospital take home leave two times each year for two months each to catch up with children, grandchildren and family events.
Dr. Paul Adolph (right) and his son Dr. Harold Adolph on the way to work at a 115-bed mission hospital in Ethiopia. Paul took care of the patients on the wards and the clinic, while Harold took care of the surgery department. 24
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On the good side, the day of the lone missionary doctor at a hospital with more than 100 beds seems to be over. Hospitals actively search for new physicians and specialists to join their teams. They advertise salaries, night time rotations, weekends off, maximum hour work weeks and employee benefits. And while dangers still exist and most places still encourage having a suitcase packed and ready under the bed, it does not seem to be a main concern for sending agencies or applicants. But the overall emphasis on medical missions and mission hospitals has diminished in the last few decades because hospitals are too expensive and recruits are too difficult to find. When Christian missionaries left China in 1949, they left 272 functioning mission hospitals. At that time, there were more than 1,000 mission hospitals worldwide. During my travels to more than 150 medical schools to give grand rounds, the mention of mission doctors spending their entire careers overseas working in deprived areas came as a complete surprise. That is why it is encouraging to see large renovation programs being conducted to completely remodel and redo former mission hospitals. Our mission is working on two of these at Egbe in Nigeria and Galmi in Niger. Although missionary doctors frequently showed a strong desire to train the next generation of missionary doctors, it was not formalized until the formation of the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS) in 1997. As a commission of CMDA, PAACS started surgical training centers across Africa at mission hospitals. Today, it now has eight programs, 40 surgical residents in training and more than 20 graduates now serving with their own hospitals. And more programs are waiting to be started. When I first started serving overseas, it was common for me as a doctor to be involved in all the aspects of running a hospital. My first hospital had an electric gen-
The Reality of Today’s Long-Term Medical Missions
Harold Paul Adolph, MD, has devoted his professional career to volunteering and serving as a medical missionary. A graduate of Wheaton College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, he has been a board certified physician since 1965. Since that time, he has served as Chief of Surgery at various mission hospitals in Taiwan, Ethiopia, Liberia and Niger. For the last 10 years, he assisted in building a surgical training center in South Central Ethiopia as the president of St. Luke’s Health Care Foundation. An active member of CMDA, he previously served as a trustee of CMDA, and also received the CMDA Servant of Christ award in 2003. In 2007, he was inducted into the Medical Mission Hall of Fame, and was recently recognized as a Lifetime Distinguished Fellow of the American College of General Surgery. He and his wife Bonnie Jo have two children, David and Carolyn, who also serve as career missionaries in Kenya and Ethiopia.
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erator with a hand crank. I kept looking for Noah’s signature every time I risked my life starting it. Today, we now have many associated organizations to help with all the details of running a mission hospital. Engineers, laboratory specialists, sending agencies, water and waste management, administrators, financial specialists, short-term volunteer specialists and fundraisers are now available to assist overseas hospital ministries. And of course, the technology has changed rapidly over the years. We work hard to try to have some of the latest equipment available, while still realizing that many of our former patients under the hand of God fared better than patients from the famous institutions reported in the medical journals. So what is the final result of decades of experience as a long-term medical missionary? Today’s missionary doctor is unlikely to find an operating table with only three legs that can’t be raised to an appropriate operating level without wooden stools and platforms. The OR light will not be a simple bulb at the end of a clothes hanger or a kerosene lamp dangling in front of your face. The ceiling is not likely to be infected and sagging with termites. The beds are not likely to lift the patient only 12 inches off the floor even with a mattress. You are unlikely to be confronted with a charging bull while making rounds on a 25-bed ward. Gourds hanging on the wall are not likely to have goat’s blood in them. The water supply will not be arriving on the backs of donkeys. Your X-ray machine is not likely to be an ancient machine rescued from a battle zone of World War II. Conditions have certainly improved, but we continue to face the ultimate battle of inactivity. As my father wrote in an article published in 1949, “Those afflicted with disease and the leprous still await the servant of the Lord to minister to them while thousands of well-trained Christian doctors leave our Lord’s command unheeded.” In the words of A.W. Tozer in Of God and Men, “We languish for men who feel themselves expendable in the warfare of the soul, who cannot be frightened by threats of death because they have already died to the allurements of the world. Such men will be free from the compulsions that control weaker men. They will not be forced to do things by the squeeze of circumstances; their only compulsion will come from within—or from above.” The reality of today’s medical missions is that the door is still open and God is calling you to enter it. Are you ready to experience the hand of God every single day instead of just reading about it in an email or a status update on Facebook? Let me leave you with the same challenge my father offered in 1969, “Let us respond . . . with eagerness to the challenge of the open door which the Lord through His Holy Spirit most certainly has in readiness for us.” =
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In This Year . . . Around the World - President Harry S. Truman announced that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb. Later that same year, the Soviet Union also announced that it had a hydrogen bomb. - Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest. - Fidel Castro and his brother led a disastrous assault on the Moncada Barracks, preliminary to the Cuban Revolution. - The discovery of REM sleep was first published by researchers Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman. - The United Nations rejected the Soviet Union's suggestion to accept China as a member. - President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approved a top secret document of the U.S. National Security Council which stated that the United States’ arsenal of nuclear weapons had to be maintained and expanded to counter the communist threat. In This Year . . . at CMDA - The name was Christian Medical Society, the headquarters were based in Chicago, Illinois, P. Kenneth Gieser, MD, served as President and J. Raymond Knighton, Jr., was the Executive Secretary. - A subscription to the bimonthly published Christian Medical Society Journal was $1 for students and $2 for practicing physicians. - Members from the Illinois and Southwestern student chapters volunteered at the Mission Clinic in Chicago, seeing more than 600 patients. - More than 90 people attended the annual banquet of the Philadelphia student chapters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. - The 7th annual CMS Convention was held in New York City.
We Are All Missionaries A collaborative article by CMDA Members Use your smartphone to read the historical article or visit www.cmda.org/reflections
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n 1953, Dr. Richard Scheel was serving as a medical missionary in Ethiopia. In an article published by the Christian Medical Society Journal, he outlined several Scripture passages showing that Jesus was a medical missionary and encouraged others to follow in His footsteps. He wrote, “Therefore, in obedience to His command we should go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” He went on to issue a challenge to all CMS members that they were all missionaries, whether they served at home, in a foreign country or at work: “To be a missionary means to be a witness. Right where you are, right now, God expects you to be a soul-winner. The practice of medicine in America and in Africa should have the identical motive—to bring men and women to Christ.” That is a command we still share today. As an organization, CMDA is dedicated to both domestic and international missions, and we focus many of our ministries on those
goals. Through these outreaches, we provide numerous opportunities for healthcare professionals to use their Godgiven skills to meet the needs of others around the world and to share the gospel with them. And our members actively accept the challenge issued by Dr. Scheel so many years ago. They spend their vacations going on short-term mission trips; they take time away from their practices to help those in need in their hometown; they leave home for years at a time to serve overseas on a long-term basis; and they remain committed to preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth. We’ve asked several members to tell us how they are answering the call to be missionaries. They share their journeys—the steps they’ve taken along the way, the mistakes they’ve made, the struggles they’ve endured and the joys they’ve experienced. How are you answering the call to be a missionary?
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We Are All Missionaries 28
God is at Work In and Through Us by Andrew S. Lamb, MD, FACP
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n November 2000, I went on a Global Health Outreach medical mission trip with team leader Dr. Andy Sanders to Uspantan, Guatemala. It was a time, a person and a place that God used to begin a transformation in me that altered the path of my life. It was a critical time in both my personal life and medical career. My medical practice was busy with a full outpatient clinic and an overwhelming inpatient service and hospital call. I also served as president of our four-site multi-specialty group practice. At home, the teen years were hitting with full rebellious force as my sons reached that age of pushing the limits. My spiritual walk was strong . . . or so I thought. In truth, I had become self-righteous and judgmental without recognizing it. I was depressed, burning out and wondering if I had made a mistake going into medicine. Then the CMDA brochure advertising the GHO trips arrived in the mail. I thought, “Why not?” It would be fun, an adventure, an opportunity to serve. My motives in signing up for the trip all revolved around me and my wants and desires. I chose the November Guatemala mission because it was 11 months away, giving plenty of time to prepare. But nothing could have prepared me for what I experienced on that first mission trip. God absolutely blew me away during that week. He showed me that it is ALL about Him and not about me, that the needs of the world are great and that even one person like me can make a difference. And just like that, my transformation started. More than 12 years and 24 short-term mission trips later, I’m still being transformed. I started leading GHO trips as a team leader in 2005 and now lead three trips each year to Moldova, El Salvador and Nepal. I am blessed beyond measure to serve with team members and national partners who make me an intimate part of their family. All of this occurs while we reach the most beautiful, yet desperately poor and lost people in the far corners of the world with the Good News. Being involved with GHO opened the door to a passion that I never knew I had —discipleship and mentoring. After serving as the team leader on my first trip, Dr. Andy Sanders continued to teach, disciple and mentor me for years to come. God used Andy’s example to show me that He is rising up a remnant in this young generation, and He is going to use it in a powerful way for His Kingdom work. I have served with hun-
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dreds of young people and healthcare professionals on the mission field. I am always greatly encouraged by these people who have amazing servant hearts for Christ. Yet, they need someone to help guide and direct them through as they face the challenges and obstacles of our world. So I began investing in them any way I could—one-on-one talks, frequent encouragements and countless letters of recommendations for schools or employment. I listen as they relate their fears, hopes, dreams and faith struggles. I try to be a safe place where they can be transparent. Over the years, I have watched as these same young people move on to all areas of life and impact their families, peers and patients with God’s love and grace. God also gives me the opportunity to disciple others in my home medical community. During the last three years, I have been discipling two of my peers whose once “in control” lives came crashing down around them. I was privileged to lead them to Christ and we now meet on a weekly basis. One of them is a cardiologist who went on his first GHO mission with me in 2011. God used the team and the people of Nepal to soften his heart and draw him to Christ. I spent many hours praying with him, encouraging him and loving him as his heart was broken by the things that break God’s heart. The second physician is a vascular surgeon who went on his first GHO trip with me to Moldova earlier this year. Before our trip, I said that I could not wait to see all that God would do in and through him on the journey. And I certainly was not disappointed. GHO played a major role in my life, first through my own discipleship and spiritual growth and now in the reversal of roles as I do the same with others. I frequently tell the GHO leadership team how thankful I am to be part of this God-ordained organization. My life will never be the same and my prayer is that God will continue to use me to help change the hearts and lives of others. (Author bio on following page)
We Are All Missionaries
Andrew S. Lamb, MD, FACP, spent the first 37 years of his life in or around the U.S. Army, growing up as an army “brat” and moving nearly every year. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1977, and married his wife Cathy two weeks after graduation. They served in Germany for three years before he decided on a medical career. He graduated from the University of Alabama School of Medicine in 1984. While serving at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, he deployed to Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm as Chief of Medicine for the 86th Evacuation Hospital. In 1992, he entered private practice at Kernodle Clinic in Burlington, North Carolina, where he remains in full practice. He serves as a GHO team leader to Moldova, El Salvador and Nepal. Dr. Lamb and his wife Cathy have three sons and reside in North Carolina.
Training and Healing through PAACS
by Bruce C. Steffes, MD, MBA, FACS, FWACS, FCS (ECSA)
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he sign over the exit door in the church proclaimed, “You are now entering the mission field.” In his article, Dr. Scheel made the same point—we are all called to proclaim the gospel no matter where God puts us. That is the principle underlying all that the PanAfrican Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS) does. We are training young African physicians to meet the unmet need of surgery in sub-Saharan Africa. In a recent article published in the New York Times, the point was made that 56 million people need surgery today. We know that all of those need healing of their souls as well as of their bodies. PAACS is a commission of CMDA and was founded in 1996. We now have 40 residents in training with more expected in 2013. We have 27 national and career missionaries serving as faculty for eight programs in Kenya, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Gabon, Niger and Bangladesh, with others hoping to join us. Last year, more than 150 short-term faculty volunteers came and made a difference in the lives of African men and women. A total of 25 general surgeons and three pediatric surgeons have graduated, and virtually all are serving in underserved rural or urban areas, sharing Christ as they use their surgical skills. General surgery in the developing world is surgery of “the skin and its contents.” Short-term missionary surgeons and physicians are vital in teaching both the faculty and residents the skills they will need when they are the only surgeon for up to 2.5 million people. Earlier this year, I was making teaching rounds as a “visiting professor.” One resident would occasionally disappear and someone else had to give the report on the missing resident’s patient. Concerned about the work ethic and sense of responsibility he was showing, I was about to upbraid
him when he pulled me aside and apologized for his absence. He led three people to the Lord on rounds. His example of making the main thing the main thing took the wind from my sails. I could hardly say, “Well, it is okay this time but don’t let that happen again!” As I serve on various mission fields, it is exciting to get to know these young men and women. It is deeply satisfying to watch them and see the mentoring and teaching blossom in their lives. Frehun Ayele, a product of both general surgery and pediatric surgery training within the PAACS system, is scheduled to return soon to Addis Ababa in his home country and start a pediatric surgery program at Myungsung Christian Medical Center. He writes, “Calling doesn't mean comfort or lack of conflict. It is clear and continuous assurance by God Himself. In my seven years in PAACS, there have been many achievements and many frustrations, but the quality of PAACS training is obvious all over East Africa. There is wonderful leadership and great work for God. But for me, PAACS is more than that: it means God's way and His means of pushing me closer to His calling and to the way of life He intended me to live.” As the result of a personal spiritual crisis, I walked away from my practice in the U.S. 15 years ago, not knowing what God would have for me. I ended up being a “missionary.” Why do I continue to be an unpaid volunteer missionary with PAACS? Because God is working
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We Are All Missionaries
and I get to have a front-row seat. PAACS is serious about both professional training and discipling because it may ultimately affect the entire continent. I do it because I see graduates returning to other hospitals, making a difference not only spiritually and medically but also in the financial security and level of care in these hospitals. I also support PAACS because it is the most cost-effective ministry I know. For the price of supporting one North American missionary for five years, we can train four African physicians for five years. Most of all, I am a “missionary” in the sense that Dr. Scheel meant because, as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, “. . . Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (TNIV). I must be a missionary because I understand what a tremendous price Christ paid for me and I do not wish to live for myself.
Bruce C. Steffes, MD, MBA, FACS, FWACS, FCS (ECSA), has served as the Executive Director of PAACS since 2006. He has been a member of CMDA since 1974, and is also a member of the Continuing Medical and Dental Education Commission. He graduated from the University of Michigan, studied surgery at the University of Florida and received an MBA from Duke University. He is also certified in tropical medicine by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Dr. Steffes is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the West African College of Surgeons and the College of Surgery of East, Central and Southern Africa. He and his wife are authors of Medical Missions: Get Ready, Get Set, Go! and Your Mission: Get Ready, Get Set, GO!, both available through the CMDA Bookstore.
How God Transformed My Life by George Stewart, MD
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s I prepared to retire from medical practice in the fall of 2005, I was sad because I felt as though 40 years of training, research and experience in pulmonary disease and critical care medicine were being discarded. But God knows better. In October 2005, I accepted Christ as my Savior and Messiah. That sadness I was feeling quickly transformed into joyfulness as I discovered a new purpose for my training. Instead of wasting four decades of experience, God opened the door for me to become involved in international medical education. In May 2006, I participated in my first medical mission trip to Liberia in West Africa. I was part of a mission team from our church with three pastors and three doctors. That first trip profoundly affected me. After seeing the devastation at Liberia’s JFK Medical Center, I returned to my home in Alaska committed to helping find the equipment and supplies needed at the hospital. Since that time, I have returned to Liberia on three more mission trips teaching providers how to use the materials we were able to send them. It wasn’t until I returned from my first trip to Liberia that I became involved with CMDA. At a meeting of the Christian Medical/Dental Fellowship in Anchorage in 2006, I had the privilege of meeting CMDA’s CEO Dr. David Stevens. At his suggestion, I joined CMDA and got involved with Medical Education International, one of
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CMDA’s outreach ministries. In 2007, I went on my first MEI trip to Kazakhstan. I was so honored and delighted to be part of this teaching ministry. I’ve always enjoyed teaching, and God enabled me to share my medical knowledge with the medical students and my love of Christ when the opportunity arose. My involvement with MEI and CMDA has continued to grow during the last few years. I have participated in three trips to China, even functioning as the team leader on one trip, and I am also now a member of the MEI Advisory Board. In 2013, I will be participating in a CMDE teaching program in Thailand for missionary physicians. It is truly a blessing to have these opportunities to respond to God’s calling. Since coming to Christ in 2005, my path has been filled with joy, peace and a desire to serve others in Christ’s image. I have learned how to say “YES” when God calls me to a mission. Whatever skills I brought to the bedside while I was still practicing were there because God used me to care for those patients and their families. Now HE is directing me to carry the word of Jesus and teach healthcare to others around the world through medical education. (Author bio on following page)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York in 1958. He received his MD from the State University of New York in 1964. He completed his internship in internal medicine at the Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, Washington. After spending two years doing viral immunology research and an additional two years working with the Indian Health Service in Bethel, Alaska, he returned to Seattle to complete his internal medicine, pulmonary and critical care training. In 1971, he returned to Alaska and practiced pulmonary and critical care medicine until retiring in 2005. Since retiring from active practice, he has been on seven mission trips with Medical Education International and two other mission trips. George and his wife have five children and nine grandchildren.
Domestic Medical Missions: Bringing It Home by Wiley A. Smith, MD
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s being a medical missionary within one’s native culture inferior to foreign missions work? Can a medical missionary returning from a foreign assignment to work domestically find approval and support? How can I earn enough to have three kids in college simultaneously? These were the questions facing me as my family and I returned to the U.S. after eight years in Belize. We were at the end of our second missionary term, and with the economy taking a nosedive, along with our financial support, it was time for a change. One of our supporting churches, Grace Presbyterian in Dalton, Georgia, had a thriving Hispanic ministry. They were open to help me with an idea to base a domestic medical mission on house calls. In doing house calls for my patients in rural Belize, I noticed that I was able to build up relationships that led to evangelism much more quickly than with clinic visits. Surveying the Dalton area, I found that no other physicians were doing house calls, especially for indigent patients and Hispanic immigrants. Out of this idea grew Grace Medical Outreach Ministry. With assistance from Grace Presbyterian, we are now a non-profit organization with a board of directors and an office. Volunteers from the congregation also lend support in fundraising and providing services for our patients. To help with expenses, the local hospital provides lab tests at cost and we use a free web-based electronic medical record program. While researching other free clinics in Georgia, I found that existing laws granted broad immunity from malpractice. So far, we have enrolled and served about 275 individuals, all at no cost to the patients. I find that many patients are discouraged Christians, who need prayer to reconnect them with their faith. Others are introduced to Christ for the first time. Our immediate goals are to hire a part-time nurse and involved medical professionals from other churches in the area to help with the ministry in Dalton. There is a big need for house call services for indigent patients. I believe our model could easily be replicated elsewhere.
We Are All Missionaries
George Stewart, MD, grew up in New England and received a bachelor’s degree in biology from
In addition, my present situation allows me to work part-time for a federally qualified healthcare clinic that serves uninsured and underinsured patients, paying me enough to keep the kids in college. Plus, I get to spend about six weeks of each year overseas with Mission to the World medical teams in countries including Haiti, Honduras, Ukraine and Southeast Asia. All those questions I faced when we returned to the U.S. were answered in ways I could not have imagined. I answered God’s call to use my medical skills to help my local community because the people in my local area need to be introduced to the love of Jesus just as desperately as those I meet in my international travels.
Wiley Smith, MD, is a family physician who accepted Christ as a teenager. He graduated from Uniformed Services University School of Medicine in Bethesda in 1980. He completed a family medicine residency at Tripler Army Hospital in Honolulu. A career in the U.S. Army included tours in Germany and Kuwait. After retiring in 2000, he and his family served for eight years with Mission to the World at Presbyterian Medical Clinic in Belize, Central America. In 2009, the Smith family moved to Dalton, Georgia, where Dr. Smith directs Grace Medical Outreach Ministry. He and his wife Karon have four children and one grandson.
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Seeing the Everyday Opportunities by Julie Griffin, MD
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remember well the day I was called to be a missionary. I was attending our church’s Vacation Bible School where a visiting missionary fascinated me with stories of far-away places and pictures of hungry children. That day at the altar, I heard the Lord’s call on my heart to one day be a missionary doctor in Africa. It’s easy to think back to that day and wonder, “When, God? When do I get to go?” I see missionaries visiting our church on their way overseas to plant churches. At the Global Missions Health Conference, the missionary doctors’ stories of preaching and healing are enough to make me want to buy a plane ticket right from the auditorium. Yet, I write this from the office of a community health center in rural southeast Kansas. We must be careful when assigning terms to people such as “missionary” or “called.” To be sure, missionaries who move their lives and families overseas and into other cultures are to be honored for their sacrifices. However, Jesus commands every believer to “. . . go and make disciples of all the nations. . . .” (Matthew 28:19, NLT). Too often we fall into the trap of thinking that some are “chosen” and others are left to be second-string witnesses or even sit on the sidelines. We must remember that each of us is “called” with the fulfillment of the Great Commission. It is the position of our hearts, not our geographical positions on a map, which are most indicative of whether we are answering that call. Fervently anticipating the dream of my eight-year-old heart, I’ve learned to ask a different question as I bustle about the office in Kansas: “Why not now, God?” I no longer wait just for the opportunity to serve in Africa; I practice watchful waiting on a daily basis. Peter provided an example of this concept on a routine walk to the temple. Outside the gate, a lame man eagerly expected a gift from Peter and John. In lieu of a monetary gift, Peter spoke healing into his life through the name of Jesus. Acts 3 tells us that crowds “rushed” out to Solomon’s Colonnade to see the lame man dancing. Peter’s next action is one we should all follow: “Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd” (Acts 3:12, NLT). Peter was able to inject the extraordinary into the ordinary because he “saw his opportunity.” The Lord challenges us to be as vocal for Him in our everyday lives as we would be on a foreign mission field. Our daily walk among our patients and especially our coworkers is one of the strongest opportunities for witnessing we are given. We must be more cognizant of our attitudes, showing Christ’s love and forgiveness toward patients who never quite seem satisfied. We should be challenged to pray share the gospel more openly with our
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patients and coworkers. We must focus on encouraging those we supervise when mistakes are made. Prior to medical school, I had the privilege of serving as an associate to a missionary physician in Honduras. In September, I participated in a Global Health Outreach trip to Moldova. I saw incredible testimonies birthed as people came to know the Lord or experienced healing from their diseases in both countries. These opportunities have been essential in my growth as a disciple, reiterating the urgency of eternal healing more so than physical healing. Praying with each Moldovan patient reminded me just how important it is for me to pray with my Kansan patients. The focus is not where we go, how far away or for how long. Our goal is to fulfill the Great Commission. Our aim should be to get outside our comfort zones to experience medicine intersecting with the gospel on a new level each day. Short-term trips refocus me on that call, serving as a reminder that I am a missionary who is a doctor, not a doctor who is a missionary, regardless of where I am. Each of us is challenged to live like Peter, asking the Lord, “Why not now?” Instead of waiting for the perfect opportunity for miraculous power to be displayed, we must seek everyday opportunities to share the gospel. If you have doubts about your ability to see the Lord in everyday activities, consider a short-term missions trip through CMDA. You will quickly find yourself reprioritizing your life’s purpose. Whether you are in your hometown or in a small village across the globe, you will discover the joy of being a missionary who is a doctor.
Julie Griffin, MD, is boardcertified in internal medicine and pediatrics and currently practices at Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas in Coffeyville, Kansas. She graduated from the University of Kansas School of Medicine and completed her post graduate education at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center. She is currently pursuing a master's in public health. She worked with Global Health Outreach in Honduras prior to entering medical school and is a certified minister with the Assemblies of God.
by Jonathan P. Bacon, MD
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well-intentioned, prayerful wrong decision is better than the default position.” Those words still echo in my ears as Dr. Russ White, a missionary surgeon at Tenwek Hospital in Kenya, concluded CMDA’s 2011 Discover the Joy conference in Bristol, Tennessee. In my mind, the implications were clear. Even if I couldn’t see the second step, I needed to take that first step of obedience and then wait on God to reveal the rest of the journey. But that was the difficult part, even though I know that God does not reveal His will for our approval but for our obedience. My first step was visiting Scott Reichenbach, the post residency program coordinator for World Medical Mission, who I had met at the conference. While visiting their offices in North Carolina, Scott arranged a meeting for me with Gail Gambill, the placement coordinator for staffing at Tenwek. “Would you like to go to Tenwek this summer?” she said with a smile. It was evident that this was God’s plan for me, even though going to Africa had never entered my thinking. The next memorable step was on Valentine’s Day as I sat across from my wife Sandra filling out applications to go to Kenya. As I gazed at her across the dining room table scattered with various forms to fill out, I thought how gracious God was to give us a unified heart in this decision. A few months later, we attended CMDA’s annual Orientation to Medical Missions in Bristol to prepare us for the future. Not only were we encouraged by other medical missionaries who were preparing to enter the mission field, but we had valuable talks on adjusting and living in a new culture, language barriers and a host of other topics that would benefit us in so many ways during our journey. It was exciting to see some of the pieces come together. We started this journey simply by going to a conference to get information, but God had other plans. Now to my great delight, He started unveiling those plans at a faster pace. As we traveled to Tenwek in 2011, some of the words from the second conference rang through my mind: remember you are coming as a servant and a guest; maintain flexibility and carry along a sense of humor; and it is all about relationships and touching lives physically and spiritually one at a time. The joys at Tenwek abounded. As challenging as the surgical cases were, the unexpected joy we experienced was working with the next generation of national Christian physicians and nurses. Though their intelligence impressed me, it was their godliness that humbled me. In many respects, Tenwek is technologically
poor but spiritually rich. There is a special presence of God there. Quite frankly, many patients should not have survived due to their advanced diseases and devastating injuries, but God answered the earnest prayers said at morning reports and throughout the day. I was refreshed daily by the prayers of the staff before each surgery. Christian music filled the operating room. My first case in the OR was an above the knee amputation on a young man as a result of severe trauma. After a prayer by the nurse anesthetist asking God’s blessing on the patient and operating staff, I began the surgery with a faint recognizable melody coming from an adjacent room. “He leadeth me, O blessed thought....” O blessed thought, indeed! I knew that God would continue to lead, guide and give me strength and wisdom for the days ahead. After returning home, I realized how small my faith was, even though I never doubted it. Numerous things had crowded out a simple walk of faith, a daily dependence on God for all my needs. Tenwek was truly a spiritual mountain top experience for us. And to think it all began by reading an email about a mission conference. Can a CMDA missions conference change your life? It did ours. I would attend a missions conference even if you are only seeking information, but be prepared that God may have other plans for your journey. He certainly did for us. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11).
We Are All Missionaries
Steps Along the Journey
Jonathan P. Bacon, MD, is a retired orthopedic surgeon. After practicing in the Pacific Northwest, he and his wife Sandra relocated to Fort Mill, South Carolina, for sunshine and family in 2010. Besides serving with World Medical Mission, Dr. Bacon volunteers as a physical education teacher at Brookstone, an inner city elementary Christian school in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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classifieds Academic Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine is currently seeking candidates for the full-time positions of Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, Chair Department of Primary Medicine, Chair Department of Specialty Medicine, Chair Structural and Functional Sciences, Chair Molecular and Cellular Sciences and Chair Patho-Physiology and Applied Pharmacology. Interested candidates may email their resumes to Ronnie B. Martin, DO, FACOFP-dist, Dean, Proposed College of Osteopathic Medicine, rbmartin4@liberty.edu, and/or apply online at www.liberty.edu/HR. Liberty University is an EOE. Director, Medical Campus Outreach (MCO) – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – MCO ministers to medical and healthcare students and professionals in the Philadelphia area and is a ministry of Tenth Presbyterian Church. The successful director candidate will have a passion for one-on-one discipleship with students in the healthcare professions, administrative skills and the ability to fundraise. For more information, please visit www.tenth.org/ index.php?id=22 or contact MCO at mco@tenth.org.
Medical Anesthesiologist/CRNA – Private practice anesthesia group in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania seeking full-time anesthesiologist(s) and CRNAs in a beautiful central Pennsylvania community. Expanding into ambulatory endoscopy center(s). Contact Frank Yanoviak at 570-809-3522 or frankyanoviak@ gmail.com. Dermatology – An independent dermatology practice in Kearney, Nebraska seeking a full-time or part-time dermatologist. Great potential for a busy practice in a wonderful family-centered community. Mission is not only to provide excellent dermatologic care but also minister to patient’s spiritual needs. Currently one full-time dermatologist treating an average of 35 to 40 patients per day. Please contact Sharon Bond, MD, at 308-440-3945 or sbbderm@charter.net, or Lori Grubbs, office manager, at 308-865-2214. Family Practice – Stephens City Family Medicine, an independent practice located outside of Winchester, Virginia, is seeking full-time BC/BE Christian physician; no OB. Position includes call every third week and weekend with inpatient rounds. Providers average 16 patients per day. Candidates are able to tailor their practice to their special interests. Recruitment incentive package includes guaranteed income, sign-on bonus and relocation allowance. Call Dr. Chris Craig at 540-868-4100 or email c_m_craig@yahoo.com. Family Practice/Internal Medicine – Wonderful opportunity for a boardcertified family practice or internal medicine physician in a Christ-centered, independently-owned clinic located in western Kentucky. This is an outpatient-only practice with no call schedule and inpatients referred to local hospitalists. The location provides the advantages of small-town living while being close to the amenities of larger cities such as Nashville, Tennessee, Louisville, Kentucky or Evansville, Indiana. Physician would be able to witness to and pray with patients. In addition to providing highquality, primary healthcare, the clinic is a Nationally Accredited Phase I-IV research facility working with leading pharmaceutical companies from around the world to bring new and improved medicines to the general public. The clinic has over 10,000 square feet of research space and employs a highly skilled staff of medical professionals to conduct the research studies. Send your letter of interest and current CV to Commonwealth Biomedical Research, LLC, 240 E. Ayr Parkway, Madisonville, Kentucky, 42431, Attn. Kathy Morgan; email kamorgan52@yahoo.com; or call 270825-8345 ext. 211, or 270-339-2759. Nephrologist – A growing single specialty practice in the Orlando area needs an additional nephrologist due to expansion. Competitive compensation and benefit package. Immediate availability. Send your letter of Interest and CV to Dr.Awosika@westorangenephrology.com. BE/BC Otolaryngologist – Needed for well-established, busy two-man practice located in a Big 10 college town in Lafeyette, Indiana. Excellent
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To place a classified advertisement, contact communications@cmda.org. opportunity for fast track to full partnership. Our private practice includes: general ENT, head and neck, facial plastics and allergy. Onsite physicianowned ASC, CT scanner and voice lab with video stroboscopy staffed by speech language pathology personnel. The audiology department provides a full range of services staffed by AuD. Please contact Ruth at 765-4777436. Send CV to 2320 Concord Road, Lafayette, IN 47909, or email lafayetteent@comcast.net. Pediatrics – Physician needed for a busy, Christ-centered private practice located in Parker, Colorado. Crown Point Pediatrics is a well-respected, 34-year-old practice that is looking for a BC/BE pediatrician to work a fourday week and cover on-call 25 percent of weekdays and weekends. Offering salary, family health insurance, liability insurance and profit sharing plan. Call Kelhe Hatfield at 303-695-7826 or email CV to droos@crownpointpediatrics.com. Pediatrics – Busy primary-care, out-patient only, small-town practice in the hills of Virginia’s beautiful Blue Ridge. Join a three-provider, missionminded group seeking to replace a physician nearing retirement. Contact Anita Henley or Becky Ewald at 276-783-8183. Pediatric Ophthalmologist – Scott & White Healthcare System is seeking a second fellowship-trained pediatric ophthalmologist for the Scott & White Eye Institute in Central Texas – Temple. The Department of Ophthalmology is a comprehensive, 14-member group located in the Scott & White Eye Institute, a state-of-the-art clinic and surgery facility. Candidates will enjoy a challenging clinical/surgical practice and medical student/resident education. The S&W Department of Ophthalmology located in the Scott & White Pavilion is the only facility in Central Texas with fellowship trained physicians in every subspecialty offered in ophthalmology. Scott & White is a fully-integrated health system, the largest multi-specialty practice in Texas and the sixth largest group practice in the nation. Scott & White employs more than 850 physicians and research scientists who care for patients covering 25,000 square miles across Central Texas. Scott & White has a 636bed Level I Trauma acute care facility in Temple, and is the primary clinical and hospital teaching campus for Texas A&M University System HSCCOM. Scott & White Clinic offers a competitive salary and comprehensive benefit package, which begins with four weeks of vacation plus three weeks CME and a generous retirement plan. For additional information, please call or send your CV to Dalia Marquez, Physician Recruitment, at amarquez@swmail.sw.org or fax to 254-724-5680. Scott & White is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
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